USATT Announce 2019 Pan American Championships Team

USA Table Tennis is proud to announce the teams for the 2019 Pan American Table Tennis Championships. Paraguay is set to host the event from 3-8 September, 2019, and TTTeamUSA will be preparing to capitalize on their results of one year ago by going a step further.

In 2018 the US started strong with the men's team upsetting top seeds Brazil in the group stage, but ultimately taking home silver as the Brazilians took revenge in the final. Likewise it was silver for the Women's team who lost an intense 5 match faceoff in the women's team final.

With much experience gained on the international stage the US team will be pushing for team gold in Paraguay.

In the individual events the pressure will fall upon Kanak Jha who is defending champion in the Men's Singles. Lily Zhang and Wu Yue, who last year bowed out in the quarterfinals, will surely be seeking a podium placement.

The announced teams are as follows:

Men's Team: Kanak Jha
Kai Zhang
Nikhil Kumar
Sharon Alguetti

Women's Team: Lily Zhang
Wu Yue
Amy Wang
Crystal Wang

The teams were selected after the conclusion of the 2019 US National Championships and were considered by the High Performance Committee along with Athlete Representatives, the High Performance Director and the National Team Coaches.

USATT High Performance Director Joerg Bitzigeio made these comments on the team selection:

"We are happy to have a larger group of male and female players in our country on a good level, meaning, not only these 8 nominated athletes, and we are sure that with these two teams we will be well prepared to try our best. The decision was taken in this case by the athletes themselves, as they have earned and deserved their spots because of their level, development, results and commitment. Beside the individual results in Singles, also the performances in Doubles have been taken into account because especially in the team event, the Doubles play an important role.

In regard to the preparation for Paraguay, most of our players will prepare in common prep camps and compete in different ITTF competitions and international leagues abroad the next weeks."